Why Brexit will save The EU

Mark Blyth professor at Brown University discusses how the European Union has abandoned working people, has been hijacked by corporate interests & why Brexit may be the wake up call needed for the Union to change course

35 comments on “Why Brexit will save The EU”

I have a much better understanding of the Brexit vote because of this. I don’t think the speaker understands America’s Trumpism. In the U.S. Trumpism isn’t a revolt against technocrisy, it’s a revolt against racial and sexual diversity.

The reality is much more complex and the speaker intelligently addresses a very real problem.

The ideal was that humanity would invent technologies designed to free people from the need to
labor so they could pursue educations, careers, creative lives, travel, the kind of activities once reserved for the ruling elite.

And it’s happening, we are slowly replacing people with machines and putting people out of work;
if you want a glimpse of the vision that I describe look at Star Trek.

The future that Kirk and Picard inhabit is cashless.

People in that future cultivates intellectual curiosity and pursue their interests.

Our civilization creates enormous wealth even as governments under corporate control poor mouth to their people.

Obviously if the elite won’t meet their moral obligations as leaders they will be dragged into the squalid prisons they’ve made for the ‘undeserving’.

We don’t call Leave Voters racist morons. The EU wasn’t a failed experiment; right wing politicians and newspapers fed us lies over the years, fooling us into thinking the EU is behind all our problems with no evidence whatsoever. Brexit is going to be the failed experiment here.

You are entitled to your opinion, and you have that, with my respect. But to deny that the EU is a failed experiment is naive at best. Ask Greece if it worked. Then ask Ireland, and maybe Portugal. I voted not to go in in 1975, and will always defend the Leave argument, and not for xenophobic reasons.
Best wishes, Pete.

I have just sat around a dinner table in France with a mixture of French and English. The English were a divided bunch, 2 had voted to leave, 2 to remain. I listened to both of their opinions. It was interesting and fascinating. But what I loved most, we still all shared a bottle of wine, we were still all friends at the end of the meal. The pair who voted to leave, were still loving their holiday here in France and will continue to come here on holiday.

It’s now 6th November – and in the light of recent developments your comment, very sadly, seems overly optimistic. We had the murder of Jo Cox – and we’ve had a massive increase in reports of race-related hate crimes and attacks (some ending with deaths of migrant workers).
Last week some tabloid headlines and at least one broadsheet headline brought the debate to a new and very dangerous low – acting as invocations to violence and fomenting an anti-democractic backlash. There were people commenting on those headlines, calling for the deaths of 3 judges as coolly as you and I might order a coffee.
The EU hasn’t been hijacked by corporate interests.
The position more accurately is that it is the largely right wing neo-liberal national governments (the same governments that we have elected!) that have been in thrall to those corporate interests for decades – and they are the ones who direct the EU.
In many cases it’s been the EU that has provided greatest protection for workers and consumers (just think about the employment protections which we owe to the efforts of the EU – they wouldn’t have seen the light of day here in the UK!).
As for Scottish Independence – that’s a post for another day – suffice to say I am a Scot who voted Yes to Independence in 2014 (and who would do so again) and I am a Scot who voted ‘Remain’ on the 23rd June. From where I am sitting the Brexit vote was driven by an angry English (not British – I’ve absolutely no sense of what British is any more) nationalism – a blood and soil nationalism that has no other way of expressing itself except in its fear and hate of anything that isn’t English.

Re: The Hamptons and low-lying beaches…people aren’t going to come for you if you keep them under a constant distracting barrage of pop culture, give them some kind of balm, say, continue in the legalization of marijuana and then keep up the disinformation.

Trumpism…people aren’t turning against the government..they are turning against each other and eating each other. Living it.

I should continue that thought…as people attack and destroy each other they are further diverted from what is actually happening in Government and those at the top can and will move in for the final kill.

Brilliant video. It was obviously over-simplified but he laid down a lot of the real agenda in just over 4 minutes which is very impressive.

I’ve never actually heard of Mark Blyth, but he seems like the type of person who should’ve been given some air time on the BBC in the run up to the referendum, rather than having people like Russell Brand and Eddie Izzard on Question Time – both pro EU celebrities and comedians who had little substance to offer the debate, and provided hardly any insight to help the voters decide.

Thanks for the like, by the way. Your blog looks interesting, I’ll check it out when I have time.

Brilliant, thank you! And Yes most traditional media outlets offered a narrow & underdeveloped analysis to the Brexit debate. I only found out about Mark Blyth when he attended a book festival held by the Economist David McWilliams.

Very interesting viewpoint. Don’t really agree about the “Trumpism” and a little oversimplified but definitely some extra food for thought.
I was also an exit voter for political and economic reasons primarily and was very annoyed at the vaunted picture of a brexit voter being an ignorant, uninformed, racist – (after all how could any sane person possible not agree with social media propaganda lol!) I did my home work and had several reason for my conclusions but my main thought was – though our politicians are often corrupt and almost always self seeking, with agendas I may not condone, at least we can have some degree of damage control as they need our votes. We don’t elect EU government and have little or no leverage on them – flashing red lights! danger signal!

Refreshing to not be in the minority for once. My profile is classic Remain yet to the chagrin of my friends I voted Leave. The West is entering a post industrial phase as heavy industry has moved mainly to cheaper places and we find ourselves in uncharted territory. Britain and the US are leading the pack but other countries are not far behind as we try and wrestle with the fact that for most people the model doesn’t work anymore. 40% of the wealth is owned by 1% of the population in the US. Brexit was a protest and a wake up call. The beast of populism takes a long time to wake up but I think it is finally waking up. I sincerely hope the powers that be will start to properly take note. Unfortunately turkeys don’t vote for Christmas so don’t expect the millionaires and vested interests in Parliament to diminish their powers and privileges any time soon. I read a stat today that for many people their income has flat-lined since 1995 in real terms. What do you care about the stock market if the only job you are ever likely to get is minimum wage.

I have the advantage of having been relatively rich and now relatively poor. I was a smug git before. Nothing is more demeaning than poverty. No-one in their right mind chooses it and I am lucky in that I have some prospect of getting out of it. Just the hope and possibility I have is a privilege. I really would love to see Iain Duncan-Smith (remember THAT statement) live on benefits for, say, 2 years and support his family and see what it was really like. Sure there are scroungers and a small minority cheating the system but no-one ever mentions the cheating of the system that every single business person I have ever met does in putting personal expenses through their companies of paying cash in hand to tradesmen to avoid VAT not to talk of the massive corporations avoiding paying any tax altogether.

I have no problem people earning a very good living as long as the base line is a decent living wage with a secure roof over your head. These are rights not privileges in our modern world.

‘Nothing is more demeaning than poverty.’ – I agree. I wonder how many people are concerned about the fast development of machines (robots). They say that machines will replace around 30% of the working population. Am I the only one being concerned about this phenomenon? They already use machines at some Superstores as cashiers.

My second concern. ISIS apparently use drones to bomb Governmental Military Forces in Syria. What stops them to use other machines in the future?

The Brexit will escalate the break-up of the EU. UK’s departure will merely encourage the departure of other nations–referendums are already being called for in France and Italy and, no doubt elsewhere. With Britain’s leaving, there goes 25% of the GDP and, little by little, as more nation’s leave, the critical mass erodes–those making membership all the more irrelevant.

A potential FRexit or ITexit could even be more complicated since Euro membership will even be more difficult to unwind, and that would reduce the financial strength of the Zone. As pieces drop out of the EU, the strength of sanctions to reduce Russia’s aggression diminish. And, let’s not forget the EU’s military mission. After the Paris attacks last year, President Hollande invoked the Treaty of Lisbon’s Mutual Defense Pact, not the NATO Charter. Perhaps that was due to a common mistrust of Turkey.

So, consider the component parts before you celebrate the value of Brexit. The BOE and Exchequer took extraordinary action (monetary and fiscal action), a few months back, to partially offset the projected effects it is expected to have on GDP. Just look at the GBP, down 11% against the Euro and 15% against the USD.

Very interesting perspective, thank you. Oh and no ones celebrating!! 😬 simply seeing many of the future problems in Europe metastasising even if Britain remained in the EU – based on the Eurozone – and hoping Brexit might be a spark to carve a different approach

If the European Commission weren’t more of a country club, it would have already been working on solving the common problems. Bureaucracies tend to grow, as time goes by, and reach for authority far beyond what had originally been intended. Micromanagement is not the answer and, in many cases, returning routine powers back to the member nations could be a start. And obviously, the power usurped by Berlin is most definitely a thorn in the side of many countries, especially the philosophical divide between the North and South!

it was great that he pointed out the pointlessness of the Scottish and their desire to be owned by the EU. I’m for a lexit which should be the break up of the GB and then reintegrate the independent states of the UK back into a more genuinely socially democratic EU with fairer wages and living standards for the ordinary workers, if that is possible.

yes, I agree but only if the UK remained part of the EU, and now they want another referendum because we appear to be leaving it. What I want is fair wages and job security for most, and the EU and most other political entities that support business drive down wages, and decrease job security, but I’m sure some one else can say it better than me.

Remember that the Brexit Referendum is not binding on Parliament so, in a vote–and given the potential changes of sentiment, as food prices have already risen–The departure might be countermanded, and Article 50 never submitted. At the same time, would Spain allow a break-away “provence” (realizing that Scotland is actually a state within a state, would Spain have a different opinion either way–whether Scotland splits from an EU member or not? I really don’t think so.

Now, we can each respect the other’s opinion, and rationale, and only time will tell. Perhaps my beliefs in this matter are too simplistic, from the other side of The Pond, or just plain dumb. I’m sure that we’ll share comments again, as the whole situation in Europe–EU and UK–unfolds.

Interesting viewpoint in the video and intelligent discussion following. Just what the conversation room was designed for. Well done Connor. And thanks for liking my latest post on the subject where, among other things, I tried to scotch the idea that the EU is a rich man’s club. I’m sure this debate will continue to rage for some time.